Konstantin U. Chernenko appeared frail and tired Thursday during a meeting at the Kremlin with King Juan Carlos of Spain, according to Spanish journalists accompanying the king. Western medical experts believe the Soviet leader has advanced emphysema. Photographers covering Mr. Chernenko’s arrival at the Kremlin for a session with the King said the 72-year-old leader was assisted by two aides when he emerged from his limousine. At the end of the one-hour meeting, the Spanish journalists said, Mr. Chernenko appeared to have trouble buttoning his coat. They said that aides helped him with the coat.
Questions about Mr. Chernenko’s health were raised from the time he succeeded Yuri V. Andropov in February. At Mr. Andropov’s funeral, diplomats became aware of Mr. Chernenko’s lung condition, and television shots showed him having difficulty keeping his arm raised in salute. Mr. Chernenko’s shortness of breath has been marked in all his speeches, but his health has not otherwise appeared impaired. The health of Soviet leaders has become a recurring theme in recent years. In the last years of his tenure, Leonid I. Brezhnev became progressively more infirm and had trouble speaking. He died November 10, 1982, at age 75.
His successor, Mr. Andropov, was 68 when he came to power, younger than many of his Politburo colleagues. But it was subsequently revealed that within two months of ascending to power his kidneys failed. By last August he had effectively dropped from public view, and he died February 9.
President Reagan receives word from Secretary Schultz that the Soviets are stonewalling the U.S. on any attempt to get the Soviets back into the Olympics. Secretary of State George P. Shultz said today that the Soviet decision not to attend the Olympic Games in Los Angeles this summer was part of an overall Soviet plan to put relations with the United States “in a sort of deep freeze.” Today Vietnam and Mongolia, two of the Soviet Union’s Asian Communist allies, joined in the Soviet-backed move to boycott the Los Angeles Games. After the Russians announced their decision Tuesday not to attend, Bulgaria and East Germany were the first two nations to follow suit. Others are expected to do the same soon. State Department officials said they had received word that Moscow was applying diplomatic pressure on certain African countries, like Ethiopia, which receive considerable aid from Moscow, to stay away from Los Angeles.
Some State Department officials said that there were unconfirmed intelligence reports circulating in the West that the Soviet decision on the Olympics was made after a spirited debate within the Soviet leadership. According to these reports, officials said, the Soviet K.G.B., its state security agency, as well as Dmitri F. Ustinov, the Defense Minister, and Grigory V. Romanov, who has jurisdiction over the internal security, argued strongly that the risks of defection and possible harm to Soviet participants made it necessary to avoid the Games. State Department officials also said that they had been told by East European diplomats that the East Europeans were not consulted by the Soviet Union beforehand and that the Hungarians, in particular, resented being forced into a position where they will have to go along with the boycott.
Plainclothes policemen have posted a 24-hour guard at the apartment of a woman who briefly visited Andrei D. Sakharov and his wife in Gorky last week and reported on their plight. The woman, Irina G. Kristi, a 46-year-old mathematician, said on her return last Tuesday that Dr. Sakharov, the physicist and dissident, had begun a hunger strike May 2 to back demands for medical treatment abroad for his wife, Yelena G. Bonner. Mrs. Kristi also said that authorities had charged Dr. Sakharov’s wife with anti-Soviet slander and had also restricted her to Gorky.
Libya said today that terrorists were using Tunisia as a base for attacks on Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi and warned of “the grievous danger” relations between the neighboring North African countries might face as a result. In a statement, the Foreign Ministry said it had “many indicators showing that Tunisian territory might be used for terrorist activities against Libya.”
The statement repeated Libya’s claims that a three-man “terrorist group” was arrested on Sunday “after it entered Libyan territory from the Tunisian borders.” “It has been proved beyond doubt now after confessions and evidence that the Tunisian group planned to carry out sabotage and assassination operations” inside Libya, it said. On Tuesday attackers using rockets and automatic weapons staged an assault apparently aimed at the barracks where Colonel Qaddafi usually lives.
Buckingham Palace has promised to pay a press photographer $1,200 for damage caused when Prince Andrew sprayed paint on a group of reporters, a spokesman for the British Consulate General said today. Prince Andrew, who later apologized for the incident, sprayed members of the press with paint while touring a housing project here on April 17. The photographer, Chris Gulker, of The Los Angeles Herald Examiner, estimated the paint had caused $1,200 worth of damage to his equipment.
Nearly 200 militant Sikhs were released from jail today in an effort to defuse tension in Punjab, the north Indian state that has been torn by violence. The Press Trust of India said those freed included 175 members of the Sikhs’ main party, the Akali Dal. Among them were Surjit Singh Barnala, a former Indian Agriculture Minister, and Prakash Singh Badal, a former chief minister of Punjab. A campaign by Akali Dal for religious and political concessions began nearly two years ago. It has been marked by a wave of attacks in which about 200 people have died this year.
Eight armed insurgents kidnapped an American couple in northern Sri Lanka today and reportedly threatened to kill them unless the Government here paid a ransom of $2 million and freed 20 imprisoned rebels. “You have only 72 hours to comply with our demands,” a ransom note said, according to the National Security Minister, Lalith Athulathmudali. “There will be no negotiations.”
The Americans were identified as Stanley Bryson Allen, 36 years old, and his wife, Mary, 29, of Ohio. The Defense Ministry said Mr. Allen was an engineer for the Ruhlin Company of Ohio and was supervising a water project in the northern city of Jaffna sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development. Mr. Athulathmudali said the ransom note was from the People’s Liberation Army, an organization fighting for a separate Tamil nation.
Jose Napoleon Duarte got 54 percent of the vote in Sunday’s presidential election in El Salvador, according to the Central Elections Council’s official figures. The far-right opposition party said it would not accept the council’s tally.
Two Salvadoran political parties received $1.4 million from the Central Intelligence Agency, according to a Reagan Administration official familiar with CIA operations. He said the CIA was seeking to prevent the election of a right-wing candidate as president.
Colombia’s narcotics dealers are under siege by the government after the murder two weeks of the Justice Minister. The government says he was killed by men working for major cocaine dealers. Since the killing, over 100 suspects have been arrested, including four well-known narcotics traffickers.
An end to South Africa’s control of South-West Africa was sought in a meeting in Zambia between the insurgents opposing South Africa’s role in the territory and white South African adversaries and other political foes. But the delegates started to quarrel over procedures and held up the meeting, dampening optimism that it would be successful. South Africa rules South-West Africa under an expired mandate from the League of Nations.
After staving off two strong challenges to President Reagan’s deficit-reducing plan this week, Howard H. Baker Jr., the Senate Republican leader, said today that he was still unsure the Administration’s plan would be approved on the Senate floor. “There is a doubt in my mind,” he said, adding that his bet was “not better than even odds.” However, he said, “I think in the final analysis we will pass a bill.” Mr. Baker’s comments in an interview, and those of other senators, reflected the conflicts that will push the debate on the deficit-reducing package into its fifth week next week. By comparison, the House of Representatives took four days to do more than the Senate has done so far. House rules limit amendments and debate. The Senate limits neither.
Senator Baker’s strategy has been to save the last vote for the President’s plan, which is projected to reduce deficits by $144 billion over three years. This strategy would make the plan appear to be the Senate’s last chance for reducing the deficits in the three budgets. It has proved to be a time-consuming strategy, given the dozens of amendments filed. Senator Lawton Chiles of Florida, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, said that Mr. Baker’s strategy could backfire because the rise in interest rates since the debate started might encourage more senators to look for alternatives.
A rise of 2.9 percent in retail sales last month was hailed by the Reagan Administration, but economists said it could mean fresh increases in interest rates soon. The White House fears higher borrowing costs would hurt President Reagan’s re-election chances and has blamed the Federal Reserve Board for recent increases. The Federal Reserve was again criticized by Treasury Secretary Donald T. Regan.
President Reagan meets with Mrs. America and her family. The president also awarded a gold medal posthumously to Joe Louis; his widow Martha accepted. Later in the afternoon he travelled to Camp David.
Robert M. Teeter, the Republican pollster, said Thursday that President Reagan’s biggest weakness in this election year was that he had “almost gone out of his way” to antagonize groups opposed to his policies. In doing that, Mr. Reagan “has broken one of the cardinal rules of politics,” Mr. Teeter told the National Association of Manufacturers. “You always know you are going to have some groups who are opposed to you in a campaign,” he said. “It appears he has almost gone out of his way to intensify that opposition and to create within four or five important constituencies in the electorate that notion that it really becomes their life’s goal to get him out of office this year.” Mr. Teeter said the voters “maddest at Reagan” were members of minority groups, union members, women, some environmentalists and some elder citizens. Mr. Teeter, president of Market Opinion Research, said Mr. Reagan’s greatest strengths were the economic recovery and “the general idea he has turned the country in the right direction.”
Range problems with the MX missile led to the Air Force’s decision to base the missile system in Northwestern states rather than the Great Basin region of Nevada and Utah, which was originally planned, according to a General Accounting Office report and sources in the Pentagon. Other disclosures of technical difficulties with the missile system were made only days before a crucial vote on the experimental missile in Congress.
After several weeks in which he eased his attacks on Gary Hart, Walter F. Mondale today accused the Colorado Senator, his principal rival for the Democratic Presidential nomination, of “unsteadiness,” “inconsistencies,” “flipflops” and a lack of experience to lead the nation. “Pick a President who knows who he is, who knows where he’s going,” Mr. Mondale told a noontime crowd of about 300 people in downtown Omaha. Later Mr. Mondale flew to two other stops in Nebraska, which holds its primary Tuesday, and left in the evening for California. Mr. Mondale’s aides said that in the aftermath of the former Vice President’s unexpected losses this week to Mr. Hart in Ohio and Indiana, the Minnesotan had decided to return to the strategy he used effectively in Illinois, New York and Pennsylvania.
Senator Gary Hart brought his campaign to the Northwest today with a low-key attack on President Reagan. Noticeably absent was an attack on Walter F. Mondale. “We must not permit this President four more years in office when he will not be responsive to the American people,” Mr. Hart said. Mr. Hart began two days of campaigning here with an appearance in Salem, Oregon’s capital, before heading to Portland, its largest city. On Thursday in Omaha, Mr. Hart repeatedly criticized Mr. Mondale for his trade policies, especially his support for legislation requiring foreign-manufactured automobiles to contain a certain percentage of American- made parts.
A Federal District Court jury today awarded $90,000 to an inmate who said Missouri’s director of prisons and two subordinates violated his civil rights by beating him in 1980. It was the first time a jury has taken a prisoner’s word over the word of prison administrators in dozens of civil rights cases filed in Federal court here that alleged physical abuse of inmates. A six-member jury ruled that Ronald Parton, the inmate, was entitled to $90,000 in damages from Donald Wyrick, warden of the Missouri state penitentiary in 1980; William Armontrout, associate warden at the time, and Gary Wyrick, a corrections officer and the nephew of Mr. Wyrick.
Mr. Wyrick was promoted this year to director of Missouri’s prisons. Mr. Armontrout is now warden of the penitentiary. Mr. Parton, who is serving a 23-year sentence for rape and kidnapping, filed suit in February 1981, claiming that his civil rights had been violated by a beating he had received at the state penitentiary in Jefferson City.
A reputed figure in organized crime, Frank L. Marrapese, and a city official have been indicted in a continuing investigation of Providence, Rhode Island city government by a state grand jury. In addition to Mr. Marrapese, the City Highway Superintendent, Edward Melise, and a contractor, Charles Anthony, were indicted Thursday of charging the city for $150,000 worth of asphalt later used on private projects. State Attorney General Dennis J. Roberts 2d said it was the first time “high-ranking organized crime figures” have been linked to corruption in city government.
Attorney General Jim Mattox of Texas was ordered today to stand trial September 17 on charges of commercial bribery. Mr. Mattox, a former Congressman, said, “It’s all politics,” after State District Judge Mace Thurman refused to dismiss the indictment and scheduled the trial. Roy Minton, Mr. Mattox’s chief lawyer, said he would appeal.
Last September, Mr. Mattox was accused of commercial bribery, by threatening to block approval of public bonds submitted by the Houston law firm of Fulbright & Jaworski. The indictment alleges the threat was made to keep the firm from trying to question Mr. Mattox’s sister, Janice, a Dallas lawyer, in a separate lawsuit involving the state, a south Texas rancher and the Mobil Oil Corporation. Fulbright & Jaworski represented Mobil Oil.
Small businesses are running better because of the use of personal computers. With a speed and precision that was once enjoyed only by the largest companies, thousands of small enterprises can now figure their finances, control their inventories and compute their costs.
There is a transit of Earth visible on Mars; the Earth would appear to move across the face of the Sun to anyone observing there.
The Tigers improve their record to 26–4 with an 8–2 win over the Angels and establish a new record for the best 30-game start in Major League history, eclipsing the Dodgers 25–5 mark in 1955.
At Comiskey, Larry Parrish has a double and a pair of homers, including a 1st-inning grand slam off Floyd Bannister as Texas downs the White Sox, 6–1. Frank Tanana allows 4 hits in the win.
For the second consecutive game, the New York Yankees played extra innings tonight and into Saturday morning. The similarity, though, ended there. Unlike the Thursday night-Friday morning game, when the Yankees defeated the Cleveland Indians, 7–6, in 16 innings and 4 hours 53 minutes, this time the Yankees lost to the Seattle Mariners, 4–3, in 17 innings and 5 hours 2 minutes.
The New York Mets’ Dwight Gooden pitched a 2–0 complete-game victory over the Dodgers that included 11 strikeouts. Gooden was facing Fernando Valenzuela five days after Gooden had given up 8 runs in a 10–1 loss to Houston and Nolan Ryan. The Met rookie obviously recovered.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1157.14 (-10.05).
Born:
Ben Walter, Canadian NHL centre (Boston Bruins, New York Islanders, New Jersey Devils), in Beaconsfield, Quebec, Canada.
John Bowie, NFL defensive back (Oakland Raiders), in Columbus, Ohio.
Rashad Barksdale, NFL wide receiver (Kansas City Chiefs), in Hudson, New York.
Stephanie Honoré, Mexican-American actress (“The Final Destination”, “Now You See Me”), in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.
[Ed: I have only HALF a victory sign for you, Arafat.]
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